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General joys

I have just been to a barcamp! My first one ever, and it was only up the road.

Tony Hughes had asked me if I was going. The Blackpool LUG were doing a UBUNTU demo session. Since this was last sunday I reckoned I wouldn’t be able to get a ticket, but I was lucky.

We turned up a little later than planned and so missed the introductions but we managed to catch most of the first sessions. I chose an excellent, well presented talk on the future of e-book readers. The guy was using an i-pad, but he was so inspiring that I am going to get (No, not an ipad!) but a reader on my android.

Speaking of the android, much of my day was spent trying to make notes on it, trying to find out how to tweet from it, and finding how to access my apps. Geeking with a new device that you don’t know is not good. I mourned the fact that I didn’t take the netbook with me – must ensure that next time I have it running.

I learnt so much! Hell, it was an education. Her are some key points.

Everyone knew much more than I did (which gives me loads of scope for learning)

I didn’t need to go with anything planned, but next time I will do (and it will be ok even if it isn’t the geekiest presentation ever)

Eleven year olds can produce amazing graphics

The community is lovely, friendly and very trusting. I think they are a great bunch. The sense of fun was freeing. I laughed so much!

Apple fans and Linux geeks can get on really well.

I wish I could thank everyone in person. All the presentations I went to were worth my time and theirs. The organisation was excellent, and the ‘customer service’ was brilliant. As a newbie I felt included and my input was respected. Everyone was willing to share knowledge and experience and I can’t get over how friendly it was. Geeks of all ages were happy to talk together and share. I came away thinking that I am part of a community, thinking that I can learn HTML and that the experience overall was excellent.

I can’t say that I was overendowed with sleep last night. I believe it was quite early this morning that I finally gav e up on the election and went to bed, and even then we had the radio on, we timed it to turn off and I never heard it stop.

When I woke I was still feeling a little groggy from the cold that I am fighting off, but I had things to do so I was disciplined.

Today was a big day partly because I went for my first pair of varifocals. I feel as if my head is on springs, bobbing up and down because I am trying to get the hang of focussing.

I then had to finish packing for woodborooke; I had left it until Thursday night because I felt lousy on Wednesday. Another trip down to the opticians had to be made then because my new glasses kept slipping off, but finally I set off.

I knew where I was going, so I didn’t print out a map, which was foolish because it turned out that I didn’t know where I was going at all. I can’t blame my glasses for the fact that I ended up on the wrong motorway. I finally arrived at woodbrooke in time for dinner, instead of afternoon tea as I had planned.

The first session started very well. I knew one of the leaders from YMG and the other from emails. So far we have looked at out hopes and fears for the course and found out a bit about the other small meetings. Ours is not the smallest, and others have problems with personality clashes and the like. Our problems seem mundane in comparison.

Inspiring epilogue with Catherine King Ambler leading (She and Rex are runnning the Experiment with light course here this weekend).

Anyway I am shattered and my eyes are very tired ( a combination of new glasses and the cold) so I am off to bed.

What a glorious day! I went down to the village this morning to see the bank’s customer adviser who tried to sell me various ‘products’, none of which I bought.

I wandered slowly round the market – which consists of about four stalls now – and then realised that I had overstayed my parking permit. Almost ran back to the car-park but luckily there was no warden sticking penalties on my car.

When I got back we strolled down to the beach and enjoyed the fresh sea air. I had put a load of washing in the machine, and when it had finished was just about to hang it and then realised that I had not put any wahing liquid in it, so had to restart it.

We have been wondering about letting Bo (our recently acquired cat) out, but I think we are considering keeping her as an indoor cat. The flat is large enough and she can see if not chase the birds.

I am acutely aware that Dr Who is on now, but is repeated whereas Oklahoma is on and overlaps it, so I will be watching that.

I am thinking of going to the allotment tomorrow rather than attending Meeting.

Last night, as the new year broke, fireworks painted themselves on a clear black velvet sky, fighting to be brighter than the moon and myriad of stars. I was shocked by the clarity, the brilliance of it all, but by gosh it was cold!

This morning the sun streamed through the curtains fooling me into believing that it was a warm sunny day. I was not fooled for long: I thought I might hang washing out but it was too cold. I planned to cover myself in warm layers and go out for a walk in the bright cold sun when Beloved went to work. By the time he left and I had done all the little chores I planned to do, the sun had disappeared and I was left with a sulky grey sky. I may go out, but I suspect I won’t now.

One of the great things about modern technology is the ability to catch up on television and, more importantly for me, radio. It was with deep joy that I discovered that Desert Island Discs is on I-Player, and though I thought it was just the interview, but I just listened to David Tennant’s choices and they played all his songs too. Now I am listening to Pick of the year, what fun!

Tonight I came home to cannelloni: home made and delicious. We have decided to use up the ‘goodies’ in our food cupboard, the things that we should be avoiding in favour of our healthier diet. Hence cheese and cream got used in a lovely rich white sauce and cheesy topping. Beloved has been experimenting with cinnamon with various meats and has now got it down to a fine art – you don’t actually taste cinnamon, but a delightful spiciness that enhances the savouriness.

After being very worried about work, about the project that we are undertaking, I was pleased to see that my concerns are shared. I was able to work on the project with few worries, and that makes me happy. not only that I can see that my workload is possible, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to complete before my deadlines. I have relaxed more tonight, but now need to get some sleep.

I ought to consider my resolutions for the coming year, but i think I would rather set myself targets.

The first day back to work after the Christmas Holidays was never going to be easy. Sleep hygiene is forgotten during the holidays – I was going to bed later and later and getting up later. The jump from getting to bed at three and sliding out of bed after 10 to being up at 6 is a shock to the system.

So I planned to be in bed by 11, but naturally it was almost midnight, and sleep was not easy to find. I woke at about three and couldn’t get back to sleep. Everything kept me awake: I was too hot; too thirsty; my hair touched and irritated my face; my back ached; I couldn’t get comfy; my beloved snored; he even breathed too loudly. I was too tired to sleep.

Once the alram went of course it was different. I could sleep on a bed of nails right now. That is why this morning I am a dragon.